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02-07-2021, 10:33 AM | #1 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2008
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About a decade ago, I wrote this post really delving into Storm Shadow's reasons for wearing all white, which is so impractical for a guy who's supposed to be stealthy.
https://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-j...all-white.html TL;DR....my idea was that it's hubris. He KNOWS he's just so damn good he's practically flaunting it and daring to be seen by wearing all white. Ever since I got my Classified Snake Eyes, I was kind of pondering why everything is so immaculate and intricately designed and stuff. Yes, we know the real world answer: he's the flagship character of the line and the designers wanted to make a cool ass looking toy. But then I started thinking about the psychology of Snake Eyes. Something Francis Ford Coppola said during the making of "Apocalypse Now" jumped out at me. He described the special forces guys in Viet Nam as really vain; really proud of their perfect physiques and good looks, and enjoyed flaunting that. He was giving direction to Martin Sheen during the infamous drunken opening scene, where Sheen is admiring himself naked in the mirror and then in a drunken rage, punches the mirror pieces. Maybe it was in "Hearts of Darkness," the making-of video of the movie, that Coppola is sitting there telling him to admire his body and face and mouth. (Sheen really was drunk and really did cut himself filming that.) Now....I have no way of knowing if any of that was true or if it was just something Coppola was feeding Sheen to get a reaction, but it got me thinking. Snake Eyes was a good looking man....blond, blue eyed, peak of physical health. And he was robbed of all that when the helicopter explosion destroyed his face. But if it was in his nature to be vain, perhaps the elaborate black outfits are his way to deal with it. Rather than wearing a standard military suit, or even something modified but still modest, like Duke...he chooses to wear this slick as hell all black suit with really cool flairs and touches all over it. Now, a no-nonsense soldier would just go into battle with the bare necessities and that would be that, but Snake Eyes, in just about every incarnation, has had really cutting edge flashy elements in addition to his all black body suit. There's no need for that weird Knight's visor. On the Classified figure he has extra buckles and belts, the occasional splash of red for color, and of course is adorned with the Arashikage symbol. I know this is a wacky thing to even think about it, but I kind of like the idea. He's compensating for the loss of his "pretty" face by making sure he has the most eye-catching, flashiest, and downright COOL uniform on the team. It's really the only reason I can think of that a guy that's supposed to be a cool-as-a-cucumber killing machine would take the time to coordinate his outfit and accessorize and stuff. He still has that vanity, and his face is gone, so it needs an outlet. Yes, my weird little fan-fic idea is pretty out there, but does anyone see anything to it? Surely there's a reason the guy goes out of his way to wear such awesome looking outfits compared to the rest of the team. Thanks for reading my random musings! |
02-07-2021, 03:20 PM | #2 |
Commando
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Britain
Posts: 3,827
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Well, in the comics, his third version outfit was literally stolen from three sadistic brothers who were torturing him like some kinda weird badass Doctor Who post-regeneration thing. It then, of course, makes no sense that he carries on wearing one guy's mask, one guy's tunic and one guy's pants and bandoleers and one of them's boots once he can get back to base, but hey, there we go.
Snake Eyes' outfits may be cool, but Hit&Run is the coolest looking figure. Don't @ me. |
02-09-2021, 03:22 AM | #3 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: ̶S̶a̶i̶t̶a̶m̶a̶,̶ ̶J̶a̶p̶a̶n
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Quote:
Well, in the comics, his third version outfit was literally stolen from three sadistic brothers who were torturing him like some kinda weird badass Doctor Who post-regeneration thing. It then, of course, makes no sense that he carries on wearing one guy's mask, one guy's tunic and one guy's pants and bandoleers and one of them's boots once he can get back to base, but hey, there we go.
Snake Eyes' outfits may be cool, but Hit&Run is the coolest looking figure. Don't @ me. As for the infamous SE v.3 with the knives on the chest, surely this was another case of the figure being designed first and once again, here's the guy trying to hide from the world but he's got the flashiest,slickest outfit on the team, including that blowgun thing and a hook to hang his uzi on his sword and allegedly the original design had night vision goggles that we didn't get til the 25th version. So my PURE CONJECTURE here is that this design comes across Larry's desk and he thinks "oh man the guy is upgrading again? I'll come up with a twisted way to get him into this outfit." Which turned out to be leather fetish bondage torture gear. Looked gross as hell on the three brothers but it really came together when SE put it on. I like to think that after the mission, he liked the look, so had to GI Joe outfitters make him a more sensible and durable replica out of superior materials and he BURNED the original. Can't imagine what stains where on the Brothers' versions. Yuck. |
02-09-2021, 05:56 AM | #4 |
Great White Northerner
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Canadian Imperium
Posts: 1,432
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02-09-2021, 07:20 AM | #5 |
Shabba
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: England
Posts: 1,352
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My take on Storm Shadow's white outfit is that it's an Arashikage tradition. If a member of the clan is killed, the champion of the clan dons the white of the "Ghost Shadow" (one of SS's working names in development). The Ghost Shadow's job is to avenge and the target's blood will turn the outfit to the red of the Arashikage.
Totally not canon as SS was pictured in white before the Hard Master's death, but just my take. |
02-09-2021, 10:44 AM | #6 |
Crimson Guard
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Location: ̶S̶a̶i̶t̶a̶m̶a̶,̶ ̶J̶a̶p̶a̶n
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Quote:
Yes, he's a mystery man. We were only privy to his inner thinking once, in issue 155. But he's still a man, and incredibly strong man with an almost unbreakable will. Maybe his collection of spike handled trench knives and constantly upgrading his uniform to look cool an intimidating (not unlike Batman) is his way of dealing with that trauma that he'll never really get over. Like I said, I'm just throwing this debate out there for the fun of it based on two things....the Coppola conversation, and the fact that the Classified GI Joe figure has so many cool, intentional little features on it. I always imagined he requested his own mods done to his uniform unless there's some lady in Joe High Command like this that's in charge of everything. |
02-09-2021, 10:58 AM | #7 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: ̶S̶a̶i̶t̶a̶m̶a̶,̶ ̶J̶a̶p̶a̶n
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Quote:
To this day, I'm dying to know the complete and chronological story of the creation of Storm Shadow. Unfortunately, we know a lot of guys had hands in it, so it gets tricky. We don't know whose idea it was to make him all white, but it might have been Larry cause he was inspired by that old Japanese movie where the ninja is a leper held together by white bandages. (Mentioned by name perhaps in an old issue of Toyfare I've never been able to re-locate.) HOWEVER, by the time the designs got to Larry's desks, weren't they all in color? So who made him white instead of black, which was fashionable at the time? The movie Enter the Ninja certainly without a doubt influenced issue 21....if you've never see it, you won't believe your eyes! I've never seen any toy diagrams/blueprints for Storm Shadow, but allegedly the legendary Russ Heath did his Sunbow character sheet. (I can't make out the signature.) BUT AGAIN, I don't think that's proof he created the character. The figure was probably already finalized by then and he cleaned it up for use in commercials and the series. So who actually sat down and designed the Cobra ninja, and who decided to make his outfit white? We may never know. It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an enigma! The designers don't even know! |
02-09-2021, 04:38 PM | #8 |
Great White Northerner
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Canadian Imperium
Posts: 1,432
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Same reason that Flash and Sci-Fi are redundant as laser weapons specialists in the cartoons: the toys and the supporting media are not and never have been 100% in synch with each other for various reasons.
Snake Eyes wears black because it looks cool, because it allowed Hasbro to skimp on paint, and they could logically justify it in that he was the team saboteur and likely to be operating alone and at night with a bunch of explosives and an SMG, a particular mission venue with a long pedigree within the G.I. Joe brand: Incidentally, it's been my contention for a long time now that the so-called "Adventure Team" of National Geographic-style explorers was actually a cover for a very shadowy black ops group active during the Cold War (ostensibly funded by M.A.R.S. rather than the U.S. government) that Joe Colton was transferred into from Special Forces in the late 1960s. My reasons for so believing are that the vintage A-Team sets have, amongst the landslides, wildfires and Sasquatch encounters, an unusually heavy and recurring focus on espionage, sabotage, securing what look suspiciously like cultural treasures from then-Communist-aligned nations and even outright assassination: Back on the subject of Snake Eyes, though, early comics forced him to accompany the other Joes on group operations because the comics were supposed to advertise the toys (which lead to some rather strained storytelling in some of the early issues with Hama struggling to ensure that all of the Joes and all of their hardware got a moment in the spotlight, particularly poor Flash, who is mostly relegated to burning out electronic sensors with his weapon). Later issues allowed Hama more creative freedom, resulting in Snake Eyes going on missions better suited to his costume and load-out (notably the classic "Silent Issue"). Quote:
Quote:
But he's still a man, and incredibly strong man with an almost unbreakable will. Maybe his collection of spike handled trench knives and constantly upgrading his uniform to look cool an intimidating (not unlike Batman) is his way of dealing with that trauma that he'll never really get over.
I always figured that he modified his own uniforms personally. |
02-09-2021, 04:46 PM | #9 |
Banned
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 10,010
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I always thought the reason Storm Shadow wears white was because it symbolizes death in Japanese culture
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02-09-2021, 10:38 PM | #10 |
Crimson Nerd
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Virginia
Posts: 12,579
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Snake-Eyes has generally been portrayed as pretty humble in most of his characterizations. Confident in his abilities but not arrogant. I don't think he carries much more vanity than the next guy. Certainly he'd prefer looking normal/handsome to his face being a scarred wreck (as shown with his attempts to have his facial damage repaired in the comics), but I don't think his "cool" outfits are borne out of vanity.
I would buy them being borne out of a combination of his relatively unique skillset (among the Joes) requiring unique loadouts, coupled with a degree of psychological warfare, if you absolutely have to have a "real world" reason for it as opposed to "Hasbro saved some money on paint and inadvertently created the most popular character in the line." You could argue the same question of virtually all the Joes...outside of the OG13 and some unifying elements between sub-team members they're all basically allowed to express themselves in their uniform choices and plenty of them definitely look cool. Last edited by Jmacq1; 02-09-2021 at 10:41 PM.. |
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